Perhaps the most memorable off-track highlight associated with the recent Rolex 24 at Daytona is the annual awards dinner presented by the Road Racing Drivers Club, a celebrated group that can trace its origins to 1952. Now led by Bobby Rahal, the RRDC honored some genuine luminaries during its 42nd annual gathering in Daytona Beach.

First up was Peter Brock, who was presented with the 2013 Phil Hill Award, bestowed for outstanding service to road racing. Brock is unquestionably worthy, bursting with automotive DNA. Besides being a racer and photojournalist, he remains the youngest (19) stylist ever hired by General Motors, where he claims credit for the original sketches of what became the Corvette Stingray. He then went on to work for Carroll Shelby, for whom he designed the landmark Cobra Daytona coupe. Interestingly, Brock’s middle name is Elbert – for his grandfather, E.J. Hall, designer of the Liberty engine and co-founder of the Hall-Scott Motor Company.

The RRDC presented the Bob Akin Award to a pivotal figure in the history of American motorsports and automotive history, Miles C. Collier. Now retired from the business world, Collier founded the Revs Institute for Automotive Research in Naples, Florida, which is also the home of the famed Collier Collection, numbering more than 100 historic vehicles. He was active as a driver in both SCCA and vintage racing. He is also a recognized artist. The award is named for past RRDC president Bob Akin, who was lost in a 2002 racing accident.

Also recognized was Starworks Motorsport principal Peter Baron, who received the Bob Snodgrass Award of Excellence in honor of a highly successful Grand-Am season. The award is named for the famed founder of Brumos Porsche in Jacksonville, Florida. The Mark Donohue Award, which recognized the most outstanding performance during the most recent SCCA Runoffs, was presented to Spec Ford Racer champion Cliff White by Donohue’s son, David.

Peter Brock certainly played his part in molding automotive history. Besides his work with GM and Shelby, I remember well watching his race prepped Datsuns eating Alpha’s and Bmw’s for lunch and thinking, huh, they’re not just cheap Japanese junk. It wasn’t long after that when people began to accept Japanese cars as being a serious alternative to American and European cars although I certainly remember a LOT of prejudice that had to be overcome. Brock helped to accomplish that, for sure !

It wasn’t just the ‘Made in Japan junk’ prejudice that didn’t allow Datsun and Toyota to become big until the early ’70s, it was also an anti-Japan sentiment from many WW2 survivors, particularly from those who survived the Pearl Harbor attack and/or the Bataan death march.
I knew of Ford dealers in the ’70s who REFUSED to sell the Mazda-built Ford Courier pickup, because of some lingering hatred left from the war!
Weren’t there also a few Chevy dealers who refused to carry the Geo-branded cars in the ’80s/;90s, too?
Yes, well…maybe one could consider our A-bomb drops on Nagasaki and Hiroshima “payback”…and call the whole thing even!

Yes Jason, There’s no doubt that the memory of the Japanese attrocities of WW2 played their part in American prejudice concerning Japanese cars at the time. Quite understandable too. It took a whole new generation of American car buyers to even the playing field. Ironically, I can’t help but think that the eventual domination of the Japanese car market was THEIR “payback” for the A bomb. But that’s a whole other story, and the article is suppose to be about Pete Brock’s well deserved accolades.